234 Fourth Conference 



But the model which is far the most valuable is 

 that which is supplied by Austria. The Austrian 

 school garden exists to improve the general education 

 and instruction of the scholars. For this is the real 

 test of the value of any subject which is taught in 

 primary schools. 



In the long run any attempt to make primary 

 education an industrial training will prove a failure. 

 This is true not merely because as a matter of fact 

 such attempts have been tried again and again, and 

 again and again have been abandoned, but because 

 the principle is unscientific. The purpose of the 

 school garden should be to strengthen and improve 

 the usual instruction and training which are given 

 in primary schools. Therefore the garden is not a 

 mere appendix to a school, such that the rest of the 

 work will remain the same, whether the boys use it 

 or not. The garden must be incorporated in the 

 organization of the school. It is not enough that the 

 time-table should contain provision for a few hours' 

 garden work in each week. Besides this, every sub- 

 ject which is entered on the time-table should be 

 modified by the garden work, and the instruction in 

 almost all of them should be improved by being made 

 more real and vivid, and more stimulating, through 

 manual labour. 



The final result of the combination of bookwork 

 and handwork is to make the scholars grow up into 

 thinking and observant men, who will prove generally 

 serviceable in the affairs of practical life. 



The boys, while they are working in their gardens 

 are taught to keep their eyes open to all that passes, 

 and to be alive to every change in earth and air, in 



